1 This publication contains estimates of public funding for arts and cultural activities, facilities and services for the three levels of government in Australia in 2004-05 and the preceding two years.

2 Statistics for the Australian Government and state and territory governments relate mainly to funding from Australian and state and territory budgets. For some 'off budget' agencies (i.e. agencies which are authorised to operate their own bank accounts), only the funding from annual appropriations is included. Any funding from other sources, such as donations, membership costs or entrance fees, is excluded from analysis.

3 Agencies classified by the ABS as public trading enterprises (e.g. most performing arts venues) are not included except to the extent of any subsidies (or capital funding) paid to them from government budgets.

4 In order to ensure that funds are not counted more than once, specific purpose grants received from other levels of government have been netted out of the expenditure for the receiving government.

5 For arts education, only funding by government arts portfolios has been included. Usually, funding from these portfolios is for major institutions which specialise in education of a cultural nature, such as the National Academy of Music, the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), the Australian Ballet School and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Cultural disciplines within educational institutions, such as universities and tertiary colleges, are largely funded by education portfolios and, therefore, are generally excluded. Funding is also excluded for special libraries (e.g. Parliamentary libraries), libraries in higher education institutions and schools, and cultural activities which are an integral part of larger entities (such as police and military bands).

CLASSIFICATION

6 In 2001, the ABS published the Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications (ACLC) (cat. no. 4902.0) which are intended to form the basis for future statistical compilation in the fields of culture and leisure by the ABS and other organisations. Categories used in this publication have been aligned, where possible with the Industry Classification from this set of classifications.

7 In 2002-03, data for Public halls and civic centres was combined with data for Community cultural activities to create the new category Community cultural centres and activities. In addition, from 2002-03 Other arts n.e.c. was further categorised to include Major multi-arts festivals.

SOURCES AND METHODS

Australian Government

8 The Australian Government refers to the federal (national) level of government and was previously referred to as the Commonwealth Government. This change of name is in response to an Australian Government initiative in 2004.

9 Prior to 1999-2000, Australian Government funding data was obtained from the Department of Finance's (DOF) Budget Management System which provided a reliable cash measure of funding by the Australian Government. Since the introduction of accrual accounting at the beginning of the 1999-2000 financial year, estimates of funding by Australian Government agencies and authorities have been sourced from annual reports and budget papers. Also, supplementary information was obtained from selected agencies and authorities. The effect of these changes in the Australian Government's accounting practices on estimates of cultural funding are considered to be minor.

State and territory governments

10 State and territory government information was obtained from a range of sources. Arts authorities supplied details of their recurrent and capital expenditure. For other state and territory public sector authorities, relevant data were extracted from budget papers. Details of relevant funding were also obtained from other state and territory government organisations such as health promotion foundations and major events organisations.

Local governments

11 Funding by local government of arts and cultural activities were included as part of the Local Government Finance Statistics collection undertaken by the ABS. In 2004-05, this collection provided estimates for total culture funding expenditure, but data was not available in any more detail. These total estimates were obtained from the Recreation and Culture group of the Government Purpose Classification used by the ABS in compiling government financial estimates. These estimates should be interpreted with caution as the co-ordination of data undertaken by the ABS does not currently permit detailed data checks at this level of output, meaning that some large variations in funding from year to year could not be validated with individual Councils. The data is therefore simply a reflection of the current reporting by Councils through the grants commission in each state or territory. A more detailed breakdown of culture funding is expected to be available in future years when the ABS begins to classify local government data by the new Local Government Purpose Classification.

CALCULATION OF PER PERSON FUNDING

12 The population values used in calculating per person funding are the ABS estimates of the resident population at the mid-point of the collection year. The estimates of resident population for years prior to 2003-04 have been revised. This publication uses resident population estimates for December 2002 (19,752,173), December 2003 (19,979,854) and December 2004 (20,207,319). These values were taken from Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0).

13 To maintain consistency between levels of government, the same resident population estimates are used for all estimates of per person funding (regardless of the level of government under consideration). This approach has been adopted to allow the aggregate of federal, state and territory, and local government per person funding to add to total per person funding.

STATE COMPARISONS

14 Care should be taken when comparing values between states and territories for some categories of funding as the funding provided by state and territory governments may vary according to the administrative arrangements existing in the respective states and territories. For example, zoological and botanic gardens in Queensland, unlike other states, are funded by local government and not the state government. Further, the costs associated with the administration of culture may vary significantly among agencies.

REVISIONS IN 2004-05

15 Care should be taken when comparing data in this publication with those of previous editions as the historical data shown in this publication have been revised as improved sources of information have become available.

COMPARISONS OVER TIME

16 From 2003-04, local government cultural funding data became available directly from the Local Government Finance Statistics collection. Prior to this, expenditure on cultural activities had to be derived from the Recreation and Culture group (ie: the split between "Recreation" and "Culture" was estimated). Due to this change in methodology, direct comparisons between 2003-04 and previous years estimates of local government data should not be made. Local government data from previous years, although validly estimated via a different method, has been excluded from this publication.

FURTHER INFORMATION

17 More details of cultural funding in Australia are published by the Cultural Ministers Council Statistics Working Group.

18 Current publications and other products released by the ABS are listed in the Catalogue of Publications and Products (cat. no. 1101.0). The Catalogue is available from the ABS web site <http:\\www.abs.gov.au>. The ABS also issues a daily Release Advice on the web site which details products to be released in the week ahead.

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